Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I promised, and I intend to keep the promise, that I do not intend to repeat a single thing. I want to make important points for the Minister of State to consider ahead of Report Stage. The threshold of €20,000 for retired public officeholder is reasonable. It will ensure that individuals who have served only for a short time and who might have a relatively small or no pension at all would not be excluded from qualifying.

As I mentioned earlier, one exemption of €20,000 was granted to a former officeholder. Any person who earned €100,000 in taxable income in any of the last three tax years would not qualify for the exemption. I am very much persuaded by what Senator Higgins just said that perhaps this should be tweaked to provide for two of the previous tax years. The Minister of State might bear that in mind if he is in any way engaged by the substance of this proposed recommendation.

That would apply regardless of the person's profession or employment status or indeed whether he or she was public figures or not.